If you didn't hear the report this evening on National Public Radio by Laura Sullivan and Daniel Zwerdling, go to npr.org and listen to it. The revelations they report suggest there could be a scandal of unprecedented proportions in the New Orleans response. According to the report, state, local and federal officials from FEMA had worked out detailed hurricane response plans more than 24 hours before Katrina hit.
National Guard forces were on alert and ready to respond as of Monday, but orders were never issued. The report doesn't indicate who should have issued those orders, but the implication was clearly that it should have come from Washington.
But the real kicker was this: The report stated that Bush met with Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin on Friday aboard Air Force One and told them he would release the National Guard only if Blanco, Nagin, and the Guard took their orders from Washington.
While the report doesn't state so directly, it clearly implies that Bush intentionally kept the Guard out of New Orleans for four days. If so, he directly contributed to the deaths of a still uncounted number of New Orleans residents.
This is a stunning degree of arrogance even for this administration. This story has to hit the blogs and hit them hard. We also need more details. Has anyone heard whether Blanco or Nagin has confirmed their conversation with Bush?